Parental Rights Under Attack in Botswana

By Seana Cranston J.D. | September 9, 2010

Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) reports that four families in Mahalapye, Botswana who decided to homeschool because of their religious beliefs face “unknown consequences” tomorrow in court.  On May 24, 2010, a magistrate court judge in Mahalapye–Judge I.T. Molobe–issued an order directing the families to stop homeschooling their children and to enroll them in public school.  The parents have been ordered to appear in court tomorrow to “report their compliance with the order,” and face potential contempt charges, jail time, or fines.

Judge Molobe’s opinion cites Botswana’s UN treaty obligations in support of his decision.  The judge declared that because Botswana is “signatory to various treaties to which the right of education is enshrined . . . It therefore follows the resultant need for every parent or guardian to accord their children access to such education which comes at very nominal fees in terms of public schooling.  Indeed it goes without say[ing] that Respondents are themselves the products of the very education system they now have occasion to castigate.”

Government officials are alleged to have “raided the families’ homes and to have confiscated property in the form of teaching materials,” and HSLDA reports that “one of the parents has been threatened that his application to become a naturalized citizen of Botswana will be opposed if he does not ‘cooperate’ with the secret police.”

This is all despite the fact that no evidence was found of educational neglect, and in fact, two of the parents are qualified teachers!

In addition to the lack of respect for the parents’ religious freedom in this case, Judge Molobe is incorrect to cite Botswana’s UN treaty obligations in support of his decision.  As HSLDA writes,

The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights itself states in Article 26 that parents have the prior right to choose the kind of education their children receive.  In Article 18, paragraph 4 of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Botswana is also a signatory, parents are expressly given the right to teach their children in conformity with their own convictions.  In addition, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights states in Article 18 that the family is the custodian of moral values and so protects the instruction of children on the basis of religious conviction.

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